


Troy in Reverse

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: Tides [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Epic Friendship, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Team, Team as Family, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-28
Updated: 2010-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-12 08:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura is perfectly happy to let Sasuke and Naruto fight Orochimaru on their own.  She trusts them, and she has the wrong skills for a battle between three ninjutsu specialists.  She fights close-in, not at mid-range.</p>
<p>Besides, someone has to keep Kabuto occupied.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Troy in Reverse

**Author's Note:**

> This would be the first chapter of "Sparks," which would be the _second_ sequel to "Tides," should I ever get around to writing the full story, not to mention the intervening first sequel, "Leaves."
> 
> At the moment, I don't want to write ten chapters of "Leaves" explaining how Team 7 got from killing Tsukimaru in River Country, to confronting Itachi and Kisame in Wave Country (inconclusively), to going back to Konoha and prying through classified archives for information on the Uchiha massacre (while Sasuke sits around under house arrest and possibly fends off some plot from Danzo...?), to saying, essentially, "Fuck this noise" and running off to be missing-nin _again_ because they can't get the council to let them do anything they think is productive, such as taking care of Orochimaru and Kabuto, or doing something to unite the ninja world against Akatsuki. I just want to write Sakura being determined and dangerous.
> 
> So just, you know, take all that backstory as read. Okay? Cool.

Sakura is perfectly happy to let Sasuke and Naruto fight Orochimaru on their own. She trusts them, and she has the wrong skills for a battle between three ninjutsu specialists. She fights close-in, not at mid-range.

Besides, someone has to keep Kabuto occupied. And she wants him to pay for everything he's done to her friends, and every time he's twisted his healer's oath in the name of whatever madness he's pretending to call a worthy cause. Naruto says Kabuto can heal himself in the middle of battle. Well, so can she, if she gets a minute to breathe -- and she's willing to bet her life that he can't pull that trick if she doesn't give him any time to think and regroup.

Sakura wants to break him, wants to make him feel every drop in the ocean of pain he's caused in Orochimaru's service and for his own research. She won't -- she's a healer; she deals in clean death, not torture -- but oh, it's tempting.

It will be just as satisfying _not_ to sink to his level, she tells herself, and she'll regret surgical mercy a lot less in the long run, no matter how good blood may feel in the moment.

"Are you sure you don't want me to leave you a few clones?" Naruto asks yet again as they leap through the winter-damp forest on a zigzag approach to Hidden Sound. "Just to provide a distraction?"

"I'll be fine," Sakura says. She smiles and pats him on the shoulder. "Worry about yourself, not me. You don't have enough attention to risk splitting it."

A tiny smile flickers across Sasuke's face, then widens when Naruto catches a glimpse of it and sputters in wounded fury. It's mostly for show, and they all know it, but they're about to walk knowingly into a village built as a giant trap, to confront two of the most dangerous people in the world. (Not _the_ most dangerous -- there's a reason Orochimaru quit Akatsuki, after all -- but definitely up there.)

When they act as if nothing is serious, it's a promise that they'll survive. They've come too far, and have too far still to go, to die facing a secondary threat.

Long before they reach the walls, it's obvious that something is wrong in Hidden Sound. The village is eerily empty. The gates stand half open, as if in invitation.

Orochimaru's stronghold is more a fortress than a proper town, but according to Sasuke, there should be over a hundred support personnel in residence at any time, plus at least a few dozen ninja, chuunin-rank and above.

"What the hell?" Naruto says, pointing at the open gate as if it's personally insulted him.

Sakura shrugs, as confused as he is. "Maybe someone else already attacked?" But there are no signs of forced entry, no cracks in the wall or residue of ninjutsu attacks.

Sasuke frowns, Sharingan spinning eerily red and black as he studies his former prison -- or his former home. He still won't tell Sakura and Naruto anything about the people he met there, besides the two they already knew. Sakura wonders if he made any friends, despite his point-blank denials. He might just be closing off a part of his life he thinks is none of their business, might be trying to preemptively stop caring about people who'll be trying to kill him to protect or avenge Orochimaru. But probably not.

His weird talent for inspiring loyalty aside, Sasuke's default setting is antisocial bastard. He doesn't let people close if he can possibly help it. Sakura and Naruto only managed because... well, because of Kakashi's fanaticism about teamwork, Wave Country, the chuunin exam, and other circumstances unlikely for anyone to repeat if they don't have an outside force compelling them to put up with Sasuke long enough to realize there's more to him than his mysterious asshole façade. She doubts Orochimaru would have bothered. If you're planning to possess somebody, it doesn't make tactical sense to let your people get attached to the person you're going to subsume, or vice versa.

There's something very sad about knowing Sasuke won't hesitate to kill anyone they meet within the walls, ninja or civilian, despite spending three years in their care.

"Sometimes I got an impression that Orochimaru was worried about some enemy he never named in my presence," Sasuke says eventually. "But he seemed to think he'd taken adequate measures to track and neutralize that threat. And there are no signs of violence. This is a trap. He must have expected us."

"Obviously he expected somebody," Sakura says. "But we're only three people, not even officially chuunin. I don't see why he'd go to such lengths for us."

"Because we're awesome?" Naruto suggests.

"He doesn't care about you," Sasuke says witheringly. "He did this for me. He doesn't want me damaged."

Sakura scowls and punches a maple at the side of the dirt path. It sways dangerously, but she didn't put enough force behind the blow to knock it down, and eventually the tree stabilizes with only a few dead branches shaken loose. She hates thinking about what Orochimaru wants to do with Sasuke's body. She hates thinking about the chance that he'll win, that she'll see someone else looking out from behind Sasuke's eyes and laughing at her.

She'll kill Sasuke herself if that happens. He asked her to before they left Konoha, and she agreed. (They haven't told Naruto about that plan.)

Naruto is still staring suspiciously at the gates, but now he shakes his head, claps his hands, and grins from ear to ear. "Right, he's a pervert and he wants your body -- I keep forgetting. Whatever! If snake-face isn't going to try tiring us out with goons before we find him, let's take advantage. Last one in the door buys the others dinner!"

He charges forward in an orange blur.

Sakura looks at Sasuke. He turns away.

"...Watch his hands, not his eyes. He never changes his face unless he wants to and he doesn't always look where he's aiming. But he has to move his hands," Sasuke says, as if talking to the silent forest. "And be careful of genjutsu."

"I'll win," Sakura says. She touches Sasuke's arm, just a fleeting brush of fingers against the bare skin above his arm guards.

Then she follows Naruto into Hidden Sound, Sasuke at her heels.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by the 4/26/10 word #136 on [15_minute_fic](http://15-minute-fic.livejournal.com). It was edited and expanded from its original version on 2/14/14.


End file.
